They found the link by DNA testing , investigators say modern forensic work done at the state crime lab produced a male DNA profile from evidence preserved in Laura Ann Aime's case and it matched Theodore "Ted" Bundy's profile. The Utah County Sheriff's Office announced the confirmation in April 2026, closing that 1974 cold case.
Laura Ann Aime, who vanished after a Halloween party in Lehi, Utah on October 31, 1974 and whose body was found in American Fork Canyon a month later, is now officially tied to Bundy by that DNA. Police say the evidence was pulled from preserved body fluids using newer techniques introduced at the lab, and that this is the first DNA-confirmed Bundy homicide from his Utah years , something that could help investigators look thru other old cases.
Hoping this gives Laura's family the answers they deserve and helps other ppl finally get some closure, even if Bundy himself is long gone and couldn't be prosecuted.
Seventeen-year-old Laura Ann Aime disappeared after leaving a party in Lehi, Utah, on Halloween night, October 31, 1974. She had been staying with various friends and left the gathering alone shortly after midnight intending to hitchhike; that was the last confirmed sighting. Her family did not immediately report her missing because she often stayed with friends, but alarm grew when she failed to meet her father for a planned hunting trip.
On November 27, 1974, hikers found Aime’s nude body in American Fork Canyon. The autopsy determined she had been beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled with her own stockings; dental records identified her the next day. The investigation was plagued by conflicting accounts of her last known whereabouts. The medical examiner estimated she had been dead about a week when discovered, which suggested she may have been held after her abduction.
Investigators later connected Aime’s death to a series of disappearances and murders of young women in the area. Ted Bundy eventually confessed to raping and murdering Laura Aime and described post-mortem activity with her body; details of the encounter on Halloween night are known only from his statements. Does anyone have information about Aime’s movements that night or the friends who last saw her?
